Studying the relationship of mad cow disease and its detrimental effect on U.S. beef exports & the corrisponding rise in demand for horsemeat for human consumption abroad, and also addressing the problematic issue of restoring world confidence in the safety of American Beef in hopes of off-setting the foreign demand for horses as a substitute for meat cows.
Horses Dont Get Mad Cow Disease - at least, that is the popular belief.

Click on text below to see the vid

Test EVERY Cow in the Food Chain

Friday, June 18, 2010

Hong Cong Warns US "Watch Your Pigs More Closely"

INFLUENZA PANDEMIC (H1N1) (42): REASSORTMENT IN SWINE*****************************************************A ProMED-mail postProMED-mail is a program of theInternational Society for Infectious Diseases

Date: Fri 18 Jun 2010Source: The New York Times online [edited]

Study criticizes swine flu follow-up------------------------------------There is too little genetic surveillance of last year's human pandemic flu,which has gone on to infect pigs in China and is readily mixing with otherflus there, according to a study which was released on Thursday [17 Jun2010] by researchers in Hong Kong.

No dangerous new strain has emerged, said several experts who saw thestudy. But in January [2010] the researchers found a new strain with one ofthe pandemic flu's surface proteins -- the outer spikes and knobs it usesto attach to cells. That was a reminder of how easily another swine straincapable of spreading among people could emerge.

"Just because we've just had a pandemic does not mean we've decreased ourchances of having another," said Dr Carolyn B Bridges, an epidemiologist inthe flu division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Wehave to stay vigilant." While there is "a long global history" of testinghumans in many countries to see how human flu strains shift each year,there are "major gaps" in testing pigs, Dr Bridges said. That is importantbecause pigs can catch both human and bird flus. Flus easily swap their 8genes and any new combination might be able to spread among pigs andeventually reach another human.

Pigs in the giant hog-raising barns of the United States and Western Europeare tested regularly, but the millions of pigs on small farms and in bigoperations in Asia and Latin America seldom are. Commercial hog operationsdo constant testing so they can formulate new vaccines and snuff out fluoutbreaks. Flu seldom kills pigs, but it makes them lose weight, which cutsinto profits.

In the new study, published online in the journal Science [abstractreproduced below], the Hong Kong researchers sequenced viruses they foundby regularly swabbing pigs' snouts at the territory's largestslaughterhouse, which gets pigs from all over southern China. That testing,supported by a United States government grant, has gone on for 12 years."The message from our paper is not an inevitable disaster around thecorner, but the need for continued vigilance," Malik Peiris, a flu expertat the University of Hong Kong and one of the study's authors, said in anemail message.

Among the globe-circulating flus that pigs could, in theory, catch are 6swine flus, several human seasonal ones and at least 2 avian ones. Thelatter include the feared H5N1, which has killed 60 per cent of the 500people known to have caught it since 2003 but thus far almost never spreadsfrom person to person, and an H9N2, which has been found in about a dozenhumans but caused only mild disease so far.

Last year's pandemic was originally dubbed a "swine flu" because the 8genes in its makeup had been seen before in American or Eurasian pigsduring the previous 10 years, though never in the exact combination thatwas making people sick in Mexico. It has not been found in any storedsamples from people or pigs, so where it came from remains a mystery. Ithas now reached 200 countries and is still infecting more people every day,though most cases are mild to moderate. It is now clear that it is alsocirculating freely in pigs in China and sometimes mixing genes with atleast 2 other long-known swine flus.

"The implication of this study is that we have to be very careful," said DrPeter Palese, a flu researcher at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "Onthe other hand, I could argue that it hasn't happened yet. It's not clearthat any of these new swine viruses have the potential to go into humansand cause problems."

Abstract: "The emergence of pandemic H1N1/2009 influenza demonstrated thatpandemic viruses could be generated in swine. Subsequent reintroduction ofH1N1/2009 to swine has occurred in multiple countries. Through systematicsurveillance of influenza viruses in swine from a Hong Kong abattoir, wecharacterize a reassortant progeny of H1N1/2009 with swine viruses.

"Swine experimentally infected with this reassortant developed mild illnessand transmitted infection to contact animals. Continued reassortment ofH1N1/2009 with swine influenza viruses could produce variants withtransmissibility and altered virulence for humans. Global systematicsurveillance of influenza viruses in swine is warranted."

The outcome of this research, depending on one's inclination can beregarded as alarming (frequent reassortment of influenza pandemic (H1N1)virus genome sub-units in swine), or reassuring (low risk of generation ofvariants pathogenic in humans). An example of the glass half full / glasshalf empty paradox. Nonetheless there is a clear need to extend influenzavirus surveillance in swine. - Mod.CP]

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Mad Cow USA

Bearing in mind that other countries test EVERY COW for mad cow disease while the U.S. tests only 1 in 1,0000, do you think the USDA is doing all it can to insure that U.S. beef is safe for human consumption?

Do you think there are cases of mad cow in the USA today that are going undetected or unreported by the farmers or the USDA?

Click Here to See How You Can Help 10 Rescues at a Time!

A Little Bit About Me'self

Lifetime Student in school of Hard Knocks.Born in Troy NY home of UncleSam,FALLOUT Capital of the Nation(google"The Troy Incident")other places I called home; Tucson & Bullhead City, Az., Seattle,Wa.,Taos,Ojo Caliente &Santa Fe,NM, LasVegas,Searchlight,Goodsprings,Jean,& Laughlin,NV.,San Francisco, Ca.,Portland,Or.,just 2 name a few. Places I have worked are bars, horse & dog tracks and casinos, and, later in life,law firms & with lawyers. Now in retirement,I stay home & mind my little mini-farm. In my spare time I pretty much live vicariously through the wonders of the www. I guess you could say (ala Eddie Rabitt) that I am - bloggin my life away,....lookin for & workin towards a better day, ohhh yeah. But however you look at it, there aint no gettin' around it, I'm jus' an ole' x-hippy-chick, struggling ever "onward through the fog" of life,....still here, still standin,..still laughing, after all these crazy years, and whats more amazing yet, still with at least some functioning brain cells!(Though through absolutely no fault of my own. Thank U geezis or whatever powers that be!)